


Eudora's Gift

by tehmoonofficial



Series: TUA Holiday [1]
Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: F/M, Just some fluff for the winter, TUA Holiday
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-02
Updated: 2019-12-02
Packaged: 2021-02-24 16:21:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,309
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21640873
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tehmoonofficial/pseuds/tehmoonofficial
Summary: Diego has to get Eudora a Christmas gift, but here's the catch: it's already Christmas Eve.
Relationships: Diego Hargreeves/Eudora Patch
Series: TUA Holiday [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1560058
Comments: 14
Kudos: 16





	Eudora's Gift

**Author's Note:**

> This is from my "TUA Winter Holidays Prompts" list on my Tumblr! If you would like to participate, visit the list!  This prompt is "Mitten" :D

Yarn moves over needles.  _ Knitting _ needles, that is. Diego doesn’t like to think about the other type. 

It’s a beautiful color---navy blue, like her favorite turtleneck. When she wears it and gets flustered, her shoulders raise and she retreats just a little into the fabric. Diego knows; he’s seen it. Of course, his knitting project has to match her sweater. Then, when she wears the gift, she’ll have to pair it with her sweater, so he can see even more of her cute tics. 

The knitting needles click like a camera shutter. Like how his memory captured the instant Mom taught him how to knit. Not that he got it at first---no, actually, Diego was quite bad at knitting. Considering the mass of stringy, frizzy chaos in front of him, he might  _ still  _ be bad at knitting. He sighs, tossing it aside onto the couch with a  _ thunk _ . On the wall of the apartment Eudora and him share, the clock ticks away the seconds. The seconds until she gets home. It’s the twenty-fourth, Christmas Eve. One of the rare days Diego gets off from the academy. Eudora didn’t stay at home, though--- _ crime doesn’t take the holidays off _ , as she said. His mouth pulls into a smile to match his doe-eyed expression. One of the many, many things he loves about her is her work ethic. She is so  _ dedicated _ . 

He bites his lip, looking down at the knotty mess of blue yarn. Eudora wouldn’t have left her gift for him until the last minute. But he has a good excuse! The mittens have to be  _ perfect _ . And this…  _ disaster  _ that he’s been working on since October isn’t good enough. 

The collectible birds clock continues to count down the seconds. Mocking him. 

Diego bets the clock is still ticking as he jumps to his feet and runs to the street, a wild idea in his mind. He bets the minute hand is still moving as he scrambles down the apartment building’s stairs, like training in the old days, and shoves his car keys in the ignition. He bets the hour hand is still edging over, over the edge, halfway between the five and the six, but he  _ needs  _ to get there and back before Eudora can make it home. 

“Son of a bitch.” He nearly laughs, the full force of his idea hitting him. The roads are  _ packed _ . It’s Christmas Eve---of  _ course _ they are. People are rushing to their families, to get last-minute gifts, to buy food at the last possible second. Just like him. 

Diego’s fingers drum on the steering wheel, and he wants to floor it. The precinct is close to home; that’s one of the reasons that Eudora and him picked the place. SUVs crammed full of suitcases and screaming kids edge along the road. Honking fills the city like the sweet, sweet sound of Jingle Bells, but a million times more annoying.

Fifteen painful minutes later, his car pulls up to a corner store. The driver’s side door slams behind Diego as he gets out of the car and admires the shambles in front of him. Its windows are plastered with old movie posters and neon signs for soda. A plexiglass sign crowns the old wooden door, reading, “C TY COR ER ST R”. Once, it said something else. Now, chunks of the sign were gone with age. 

The steel railing is cold against his gloveless hands as he climbs a couple of stairs to the entrance. 

-

Summer brought a lot of nice things to the city. Most importantly, it brought more recreation time. Hey, even Reginald had a heart, apparently. Sundays in June, July, and August had a full hour of free time for each member of the Umbrella Academy. The sun carried warm rays onto everyone’s faces. But, there was a downside to this. It was  _ boiling freakin’ hot _ . 

Diego slid the cooler door open in the corner store. Before his eyes was the largest selection of popsicles he had ever seen. (He hadn’t seen that many before, but still.) The cool air, rare in this weather, tumbled from the rectangular box of ice pops. He grinned. The gap in his two front teeth showed in his smile. His hands reached out towards the plastic-wrapped popsicles, and he grabbed bunches of them, eyeing each and every one of them before he was  _ oh-so-rudely  _ interrupted by-

“Hey! Don’t do that!” A stern voice chirped from behind him.

Diego turned around, hiding as many popsicles behind his back as he could. He saw a girl his age, with brown hair tugged into tight pigtails. Her face was screwed into an expression of disapproval. Even upset, Diego had to admit that she was the prettiest girl he had ever seen. 

“Duh-duh-do whuh-what?” His face flushed at his stuttering. Of  _ course  _ he had to have trouble talking in front of her! 

“You think I can’t see the popsicles behind your back?” She crossed her arms assertively over a t-shirt advertising a cartoon. Her brown eyes the color of stripes on a bumblebee narrowed. “I wanna be a police officer when I grow up. I can see the  _ clues  _ that you’re hiding those popsicles.” 

He opened his mouth to disagree, but nothing came out. The heat was already starting to melt the Fudgesicles and Rocket Pops behind him. Finally, he gathered himself, and shouted, “Who e-even are yuh-you, anywuh-way?!” 

The girl smirked, holding out her open hand. “Eudora Patch.”

Diego set a few of the popsicle bags down in it, not realizing she wanted to shake his hand. “Di-Diego.” He couldn’t help but smile back. 

-

The apartment door flies open on its hinges, and Diego sucks in a breath of air after having vaulted all those stairs. He chuckles, and drops as many popsicles as he could hold onto the kitchen table. Hey, maybe it wasn’t a diamond ring, but it’s the thought that counts. And it’s not like she won’t get a diamond ring someday. Just not yet. That has to be  _ perfect _ , but not like the failed attempt at knitting. The proposal has to be  _ perfect _ -perfect, where there’s everything short of a rainbow in the background and everyone standing and clapping. 

Eudora looks up from a newspaper. He nearly melts again, because it’s the simple things. A  _ newspaper _ . He’s seen her read them before, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t as cute every time. “Where have you  _ been _ ?” Her eyebrows draw together, then raise at the pile of flavored ice. 

“Happy Christmas,” he sighs and falls back onto the couch next to her. 

“Is that my gift?” Eudora asks mischievously. She rolls her eyes and elbows him when he wrinkles the crossword section resting on the cushion underneath him. 

Diego nods. “Sorry. It’s-it’s supposed to represent the first time we met, at that corner store when we were eight. I-I did anuh-another thing too, but…,” he trailed off, averting his gaze from her too-beautiful face. She deserves better than a pile of Rocket Pops. 

“Oh,” Eudora says softly. She folds the newspaper section she’s been reading, and sets it down on the coffee table. The wooden floorboards creak as she carefully makes her way over to the kitchen table. Diego’s heart thumps.

Her fingers push around the popsicles on the table, and then she giggles, and it’s the best sound he’s ever heard. He lights up with the noise. It’s better than any song ever sung, ever  _ will be  _ sung. And her smile is better than any masterpiece in history. 

“It’s perfect,” she whispers. Her shoulders rise and the neck of her turtleneck sweater rises up to attempt to cover her blushing face. 

“I-It is?” Diego gets up from the couch and studies her face.  _ She’s being genuine. _

“It is.” Eudora repeats, and today, he feels like he could propose to her. 

**Author's Note:**

> If you like my writing, or want to participate in this list, go give me a follow at @tehmoonofficial on tumblr! :)


End file.
